Thumbs Up! Can-Can Has All the Makings of a Broadway Winner

Stop waiting around for that Moulin Rouge! musical and check yourself into another bawdy Parisian nightclub currently winning over audiences in the unlikely locale of Millburn, New Jersey. We’re talking about Can-Can, Paper Mill Playhouse’s completely revamped take on the 1953 Cole Porter musical, featuring direction by David Lee and a new script by TV writer Joel Fields and Lee. With a killer cast, gorgeous tunes, high-kicking choreography by Patti Colombo and a great spirit of fun, this long-in-the-works winning revival has all the elements that should make it a hit on Broadway. Tony nominee Kate Baldwin shows off her sexy side (and her phenomenal pipes) as Pistache, the owner of the Montmarte nightclub that gets in trouble with the law for allowing her dancer girls to show their ruffles by dancing the forbidden titular dance. She’s perfectly paired with Jason Danieley as her former flame who’s now on the other side of the law as the district’s judge. The whole cast is perfection—Broadway names include Megan Sikora, Greg Hildreth, Michael Berresse, Mark Price and our own Justin “Squigs” Robertson. Sure, the show could use another big dance number in Act Two and a handful more jokes that really land, but these are minor quibbles for one of the most entertaining “new” musicals to kick its legs up in years.

Can-Can plays at the Paper Mill Playhouse through October 26.